Monday 16 February 2015

1928: The St. Francis Dam disaster


It was just a few minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, when the second worst disaster in California occurred in the Santa Clarita Valley’s San Francisquito Canyon.

The St. Francis Dam, holding back more than 30,000 acre feet of water for the city of Los Angeles, crumbled, sending a 10-story-high wall of water crashing into the Santa Clarita and Santa Clara River valleys.

Loss-of-life estimates range from 430 to more than 600 people. Only the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 killed more Californians. Bodies washed out to sea by the flood were found as far away as San Diego.

This year the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society will join the California State University Northridge’s archeology department to sponsor a symposium on the disaster on March 28.

Monday 16 February 2015

http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/133110/

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